Getting started with the XL Deploy CLI

XL Deploy includes a command-line interface (CLI) that you can use to control and administer many features, such as discovering middleware topology, setting up environments, importing packages, and performing deployments. It connects to the XL Deploy server using the standard HTTP/HTTPS protocol, so it can be used remotely without firewall issues.

Connect to XL Deploy from the CLI

After you install the CLI, you can connect to the XL Deploy server as follows:

Ensure that the XL Deploy server is running.

Open a terminal window or command prompt and go to the XL_DEPLOY_CLI_HOME/bin directory (where XL_DEPLOY_CLI_HOME is the directory where the CLI is installed).

Execute the start command:

Unix-based operating systems: ./cli.sh

Microsoft Windows: cli.cmd

Enter your user name and password.

The CLI attempts to connect to the server on localhost, running on XL Deploy’s standard port of 4516.

Entering XL Deploy server credentials

To provide the user name and password for accessing the XL Deploy server, you can:

Enter them interactively in the CLI

Provide them with the -username and -password options

Store them in the cli.username and cli.password properties in the XL_DEPLOY_CLI_HOME/conf/deployit.conf file

Entering passwords on the Windows command line

You can use special characters such as !, ^, or " in passwords. These characters have special meaning in the Microsoft Windows command prompt, which means that passing them to the XL Deploy server as-is causes log-in to fail.

To prevent this issue, surround the password with quotation marks ("). If the password contains a quotation mark, you must triple it. For example, My!pass^wo"rd should be entered as -password "My!pass^wo"""rd".

CLI startup options

The CLI can be started with the following options:

Option

Description

-configuration config_directory

Pass an alternative configuration directory to the CLI. The CLI will look for a deployit.conf in this location. The configuration file supports the cli.username and cli.password options.

-context newcontext

If provided, the context value will be added to the XL Deploy server connection URL. For example, if newcontext is given, the CLI will attempt to connect to the XL Deploy server REST API at http://host:port/newcontext/deployit. The leading slash and REST API endpoint (deployit) will automatically be added if they are omitted from the parameter.

Tip: If the XL Deploy context root is set to deployit, the -context value must be /deployit/deployit.

-f Python_script_file

Starts the CLI in batch mode to run the provided Python file. After the script completes, the CLI will terminate. The XL Deploy CLI can load and run Python script files of up to 100 KB in size.

Specifies the port at which to connect to the XL Deploy server. If the port is not specified, it will default to XL Deploy’s default port, 4516.

-proxyHost VAL

Specifies the HTTP proxy host if XL Deploy needs to be accessed via an HTTP proxy.

-proxyPort N

Specifies the HTTP proxy port if XL Deploy needs to be accessed via an HTTP proxy.

-secure

Instruct the CLI connect to the XL Deploy server using HTTPS. By default it will connect to the secure port 4517, unless a different port is specified with the -port option. To connect, the XL Deploy server must have been started using this secured port (enabled by the default).

-username myusername

The username for logging in. If the username is not specified, the CLI will enter interactive mode and prompt the user.

-password mypassword

The password for logging in. If the password is not specified, the CLI will enter interactive mode and prompt the user.

-q

Suppresses display of the welcome banner.

-quiet

Alternative for the -q option.

-h

List the startup options.

Accessing help in the CLI

To access help in the CLI, execute the help command.

To get information about a specific object, execute <objectname>.help(). To get information about a specific method, execute <objectname>.help("<methodname>").

CLI startup example

An example of the CLI startup options is:

./cli.sh -username User -password UserPassword -host xl-deploy.local

This will connect the CLI as User with password UserPassword to the XL Deploy server running on the host xl-deploy.local and listening on port 4516.

Passing arguments to CLI commands or scripts

You can pass arguments from the command line to the CLI. You are not required to specify any options to pass arguments. This is an example of passing arguments, without specifying options:

./cli.sh these are four arguments

And with options:

./cli.sh -username User -port 8443 -secure again with four arguments

You can start an argument with the - character. To instruct the CLI to interpret it as an argument instead of an option, use the -- separator between the option list and the argument list:

./cli.sh -username User -- -some-argument there are six arguments -one

This separator only needs to be used if one or more of the arguments begin with -.

You can use the arguments in commands given on the CLI or in a script passed with the -f option, by using the sys.argv[index] method, whereby the index runs from 0 to the number of arguments. Index 0 of the array contains the name of the passed script, or is empty when the CLI was started in interactive mode. The first argument has index 1, the second argument index 2, and so forth. Given the command line in the first example presented above, the following commands:

import sys
print sys.argv

Would yield as a result:

['', '-some-argument', 'there', 'are', 'six', 'arguments', '-one']

Sample CLI scripts

This is an example of a simple CLI script that deploys the BookStore 1.0.0 application to an environment called TEST01:

Extending the CLI

You can extend the XL Deploy CLI by installing extensions that are loaded during CLI startup. Extensions are Python scripts, for example with Python class definitions, that will be available in commands or scripts run from the CLI. This feature can be combined with arguments given on the command line when starting up the CLI.

To install a CLI extension:

Create a directory called ext in the directory from which you will start the CLI. During startup, the current directory will be searched for the existence of the ext directory.

Copy Python scripts into the ext directory.

Restart the CLI. During startup, the CLI will search for, load, and execute all scripts with the py or cli suffix found in the ext directory.

Note: The order in which scripts from the ext directory are executed is not guaranteed.

Log out of the CLI

In interactive mode, you can log out of the CLI by executing the quit command.

In batch mode (when a script is provided), the CLI automatically terminates after finishing the script.